Optimism high for UNH basketball teams

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By BRETT FERRELLPortsmouth Herald

DURHAM — Lundholm Gymnasium will come to life Saturday with the opening tip-off for the University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team. The Wildcats will take on Suffolk University in their home opener at 1 p.m.

UNH returns nine players from last year’s team that went 13-16 and lost to Albany in the America East quarterfinals. The Wildcats graduated Alvin Abreu, the third-leading scorer in program history, but they feel capable of making a run at their first-ever league title and a spot in the NCAA tournament.

“We want to get a banner in our gym,” said senior guard Chandler Rhoads, the top returning scorer at 11.2 points per game. “Our first goal is to get to the conference championship and win it.”

UNH, which was picked sixth in the America East preseason coaches’ poll, could have a different look offensively this season.

Herrion said UNH has placed too much responsibility upon its guards in years past, with poor 3-point shooting hampering the offense. The Wildcats shot just 34.4 percent from beyond the arc last season while averaging 61.2 points per game.

“We need more balance,” Herrion said. “We have been a 3-point oriented basketball team. We’ve had a lack of a post presence and I think we’ve finally found our post presence.”

The plan is to get senior forwards Ferg Myrick (8.5 ppg) and Jeron Trotman, along with freshman Frank Okeke, more involved inside in order to open up opportunities on the perimeter.

“The defense is going to have to pay more attention to the interior,” Herrion said. “We might have more looks on the perimeter and take more quality threes.”

“In the past, we really haven’t had a dominating inside guy,” Rhoads said. “Chris Matagrano, Chris Pelcher and Jeron Trotman have been doing a really good job of getting back to the basket and making sure we have a low-post game.”

The Wildcats will have some depth with a nine-man rotation, starting Rhoads and Patrick Konan (9.7 ppg) on the wings, Pelcher at center, Jordan Bronner at guard and either Myrick or Trotman at power forward.

The UNH women’s basketball team will open its season at Yale next Wednesday. The Wildcats, who went 16-14 last season and lost to Maryland-Baltimore County in the America East quarterfinals, were picked fourth in the league’s preseason coaches’ poll.

UNH will be relying on several underclassmen to play big roles. Denise Beliveau graduated after averaging 14.1 points and 8.6 rebounds in starting all 30 games last season. Junior Sarah-Marie Frankenberger will sit out the season with a torn ACL and senior Jilliane Friel of Durham is out indefinitely with a concussion.

“Because we’ve had a lot of injuries early on, a lot of the younger kids are getting more reps,” said UNH coach Maureen Magarity. “I think that’s good going into the season. They’re playing with more confidence and it will be interesting.”

Returning for the Wildcats are seniors Morgan Frame, Cari Reed and Lauren Wells, who is back after sitting out all of last year with an injury. Frame led UNH in scoring (16.0) and was second in rebounds (7.5) last year.

Junior guard Kelsey Hogan also started every game last season while averaging 10.2 points.

“I’m really excited to see the underclassmen perform, because they have a great opportunity of stepping into a big role,” Hogan said.

Hogan and Wells are slated to start in the backcourt for UNH, with Reed and sophomore Kaylee Kilpatrick at forward and Frame at center.

“The coaches have raised the bar,” said Hogan. “I feel personally that we can only go up from here.”